BurmaNet News: July 18 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

July 18 2003 Issue #2287

INSIDE BURMA

DVB: Burmese MPs are concerned about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s health
Mizzima: Khin U Township NLD members sent to jail
Narinjara: Arakanese political parties welcome US sanctions on Burma
Xinhua: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi not to attend ceremony honoring father
AP: Military rulers of Myanmar keep most citizens offline
Xinhua: Western sanctions to deteriorate Myanmar’s superstructure: media

REGIONAL

Irrawaddy: Offensive launched in Naga hills
Irrawaddy: Exiled NLD members to meet Chinese
Jiji Press Ticker: Japan asks ASEAN to send mission to free Suu Kyi
Nation: Rangoon weighs Thai ‘road map’

INTERNATIONAL

AFP: Blair arrives in Japan amid furore over arms expert’s death
Weekly Standard: The Burma three

MISCELLANEOUS

Narinjara: ALD (exile) general secretary passed away
Independent: Tourists, temples and torture

INSIDE BURMA

Democratic Voice of Burma July 18 2003

Burmese MPs are concerned about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s health

While the UN General Secretary Kofi Anan and the international community
are worried about the health condition and safety of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
who is being detained by the military regime in Burma, the Burmese MPs are
voicing their concerns over her condition. Daw Hla Hla Moe, the MP of
No.2, Min Hla Township Constituency, Pegu Division expressed her worries
as follows:

Daw Hla Hla Moe : As she is our leader, we are more worried. She is also a
woman. We don’t know where she is being kept. Is she still alive? Even if
she is still alive, she should not be kept in prison like this. We don’t
know about her health condition. We don’t know whether she is still alive
or dead. We are feeling very upset and miserable. In the end, we dare not
think about it. These are our feelings. We never thought that she would be
kept like this for a long time like this. She is being kept in prison and
we don’t feel good about it.

Daw Hla Hla Moe also described how she was tired out physically and
mentally with worries as she was kept in a helpless condition for a woman
when she was detained at Yemon Military Detention Camp for more than eight
months as follows:

Daw Hla Hla Moe : I had no contact with my surrounding. Life was so empty.
I could not feel my own existence. I didn’t know where I went and where I
was sent in my quotidian existence. Everyday, we have to live with the
fear that we would be sent to Insein Prison or Tharawaddy Prison. As a
woman, there was nothing one could depend on there. 
We were not allowed
to listen to radio. We had to read only their newspapers. We know nothing
what was happening outside. Apart from religion and meditation, we had
nothing to depend on. We had to strengthen our soul with the help of
religion. If she were in this position, she would be feeling very angry,
outraged, worried and miserable. I could feel the pain for her because
when I look back at my own experience, I feel that Daw Suu will be
suffering more than me.
_________

Mizzima July 18 2003

Khin U Township NLD members sent to jail
Tun Naing (Mizzima News)

July 17, 2003: As part of the junta's recent wave of arrests of NLD
members in the wake of the brutal crackdown at Depeyin, two NLD members
from Khin U Township were arrested again the last week, according to close
relatives of the victims.

NLD members Ko Myo Aung and U Tin Myint from Khin U Township, Sagaing
Division, were convicted to two and three years imprisonment respectively
by the Township court and sent to Shwe Bo prison.

Ko Myo Aung is a ex-member of Student Union and an NLD organizer. He was
arrested by military intelligence because a one-dollar banknote was found
in his shirt.

U Tin Myint is an executive member of the Township NLD in Khin U and a
villager from Kuan Thaing village. He was arrested by military
intelligence when some political documents were found in his house.

Dr. Win Tin, an NLD member of NLD who had co-organised Aung San Suu Kyi's
trip from Khin U Township was arrested in the Dipeyin crack-down.
_________

Narinjara News July 18 2003

Arakanese Political parties welcome US sanctions on Burma

Dhaka, 18th July 03:  Following US House of Representative’s overwhelming
vote in favour of sanctioning Burma, the Arakanese political parties in
exile in a statement dated today welcomed the move.

Seven Arakanese political parties representing the Arakanese people
welcomed the 418 -2 House vote on 15th July 03 that occurred a month after
the 97 -1 Senate vote.  They hoped the move would give a strong support to
the cause of restoration of democracy.

The economic sanctions against the Burmese junta will only affect a
handful of the workers and the majority people will not be affected, they
hoped.  Because the people of Burma have been subjected to the worst kind
of oppressions and repressions by the ruling military junta of Burma
self-styled as State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).   The interest
of the majority Burmese should be taken into account, while that of the
few junta minions should be disregarded, the statement said.

If actions against the SPDC junta are not taken by the world, incidences
of gruesome massacre more horrific than that of the 30th May would soon
follow, it said.

Besides the parties called for the international societies including the
EU, ASEAN, Japan and other neighbouring nations to give pressure to the
Burmese junta for restoration of democracy as envisaged by the people in
general by giving full support to the economic sanctions imposed by the US
and stopping all the present relationship with the junta.

The signatories of the statement included: Arakan League for Democracy
(Exile), National United Party of Arakan, Arakan Liberation Party, All
Arakan Students and Youths Congress, Rakhine Women’s Union, Arakan Labour
Association, and ROE (Rakhine Overseas in Exile).
________

Xinhua News Agency July 18 2003

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi not to attend ceremony honouring father

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is being held in detention
at an unknown location, will not attend a ceremony to mark her father's
1947 assassination Saturday, a family source said.

Myanmar's independence hero General Aung San is highly respected both by
the ruling junta and the pro-democracy movement, and the annual Martyrs'
Day celebrations are a major event on the political calendar.

Aung San Suu Kyi attended last year's ceremony after she was released from
19 months of house arrest, but stayed away the previous year despite being
invited by the ruling junta, to protest against her detention.

"The Aung San family will this time be represented by big brother Aung San
Oo who is presently here with his wife as a special guest of the military
government," a close friend of Aung San Oo told AFP Friday.

The 60-year-old brother, a US citizen, does not get on with Aung San Suu
Kyi and the two are engaged in a running feud over the family home in
Yangon where the Nobel peace laureate has lived since returning to Myanmar
in 1988.

"He has not asked to see his sister," the family friend said.

Aung San Suu Kyi was taken into custody on May 30 after a violent clash
between her supporters and a pro-junta gang during a political tour of
northern Myanmar.

The incident triggered a wider crackdown on her National League for
Democracy (NLD) which has left its entire leadership in jail or under
house arrest.

Although the junta has insisted that Aung San Suu Kyi is being detained on
a temporary basis for her own safety, it has not indicated when she could
be released.

"Their actions to date would indicate that they're not looking to let her
go any time soon," said one diplomat in Yangon, referring to a stream of
invective aimed at the opposition leader in the state media over recent
days.

Saturday's ceremony, to be held amid tight security at the Martyrs'
Mausoleum which lies in the shadow of Yangon's golden Shwedagon Pagoda, is
expected to be attended by ministers in the Myanmar regime.

However, the top three generals who run the nation's affairs are not
expected to attend.
____________

Associated Press July 18 2003

Military rulers of Myanmar keep most citizens offline
By SHELLY CULBERTSON

Visit one of Yangon's only two Internet cafes, glance over a few
shoulders, and you'll see people trying to surf their way to a better
future beyond the stiff borders of their military-ruled homeland.

In theory, anyone can get online in Myanmar. But this being one of Asia's
poorest countries, access is a luxury few can afford.

Only about one in 5,000 people have Internet access, and even that is
restricted by firewalls and other government-imposed limitations.

It was a limited cyber-thaw, then, when Myanmar's isolationist regime,
which controls all media and communications in the country, allowed the
two cybercafes to open earlier this year.

In one, a dusty warehouse-like space called Cyberworld, a recent
university graduate sat at one of the shop's 27 terminals looking for Web
sites for a master's degree program in computers in the United States.

He had a computer science degree from the university in this nation, also
known as Burma, though Internet access was unavailable on campus.

The student, who like many others interviewed spoke on condition of
anonymity, said he had been able to use the Internet in the last few years
only through a private company's connection. Now he and others who can
afford the cafes come to look for work opportunities or better schools.
Others seek escape through video games.

What you won't find - at least not openly - are people visiting
anti-government Web sites. That can land a person in jail.

The military, in power since 1962, arrested six army officers in 1999 for
trying to access such a site, according to the Paris-based media freedom
group Reporters Without Borders.

Pornography, meanwhile, is taboo. And don't even think of trying to access
a Hotmail account - the e-mail service is blocked.

"Of countries worldwide, Burma and North Korea are together at the far end
of the scale of Internet repression," Shanthi Kalathil, author of the book
"Open Networks, Closed Regimes," said in a telephone interview from
Washington, D.C.

Near the 48 terminals at Surf 'N Surf, the other Internet cafe, the rules
are posted in fractured English: "We don't provide any pornography, free
e-mail, anti-government Web site, due to strictly prohibited by
authority."

Dissident Web sites, pornography sites and even some general news sites
are all but impossible to access because of filtering software installed
by the government on computers that link Myanmar with the outside world.
While Western technologists have developed ways around such blocks, most
of their efforts have focused on China.

Myanmar's government blocks the free e-mail services of Hotmail and Yahoo,
forcing people to buy accounts from tightly controlled government
providers, one of which is owned by the son of military intelligence chief
Khin Nyunt, the junta's third-ranking leader.

Regulations issued in 2000 forbid the posting of political writings on the
Internet. Also banned was anything "detrimental" to Myanmar or its
"current policies and secret security affairs."

One law on the books sets a punishment of up to 15 years in prison for
possessing a modem without permission.

The pornography barriers, at least, have proven permeable. At one hotel,
this reporter caught a glimpse of two employees at the e-mail service
center hastily clicking to shut down spicy photos on a computer screen.

Even the business centers at five-star hotels do not provide Internet,
only allowing guests to send and receive e-mail through hotel accounts.
The staff prints out all e-mails received, smilingly handing paper copies
of private messages to guests, ostensibly as a service, but making
visitors feel monitored.

"I heard a year ago, they were checking e-mail by e-mail, but they are not
doing that now," says Vincent Brossel of Reporters Without Borders, which
recently issued a report on world Internet freedom.

Even with the two new Internet cafes, the regime can hardly claim it's
allowing public access to the Internet.

Most Burmese cannot get online either because they lack the required
official permission to open private accounts or they simply can't afford
it. The price of an hour at Cyberworld or Surf 'N Surf is $1.50, an amount
many in Myanmar can't earn in a full day.

Brossel said the recent easing of restrictions was spurred by business
pressures. Keeping the Internet revolution in check has allowed the junta
to maintain firm control, but it has also slowed economic development, he
said.

"Investor countries want to see more openness," he said from Paris.

Brossel said the recent thaw could come of a struggle within the military,
one that saw generals who seek more foreign dollars outmuscling generals
who favor tighter political control.

Meanwhile, the Internet has been a powerful force for opposition groups
outside Myanmar. They maintain Web sites to provide uncensored news and
organize opponents of the military regime all over the world. Though most
people in Myanmar can't access them, the sites raise awareness worldwide.

In addition, many of the developments - rumors and fact - following the
May 30 arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi circulated first on
the Internet.

Kalathil said pressure from such opposition groups had led to some foreign
investors pulling out of Myanmar.

"The transnational opposition movement has had a very tangible impact, and
a lot of this has been from Internet organizers," she said.
_____________

Xinhua News Agency July 18 2003

Western sanctions to deteriorate Myanmar's superstructure: media

Government-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar Friday warned that the
imposition of economic sanctions on Myanmar by Western countries will
bring about the deterioration of the country's superstructure.

"Economic bankruptcy and decline of a nation, which is formed with many
families, will lead to a deterioration in the political, administrative,
legal, knowledge, cultural sectors and democracy cause and human rights
which are the superstructure," the paper said in an article.

The paper's remarks came at a time when the United States has tightened
sanctions against Myanmar over the issue of the country' s May 30 incident
with a bill to be signed sooner by President George Bush to ban import of
goods from Myanmar and freeze the military government's assets in the
United States after both the US Senate and House of Representatives voted
recently with 97-1 and 418-2 respectively to impose such measures.

Meanwhile, the paper stressed the need to realize three key elements for
the emergence of a democratic state, namely to build national
reconciliation without fail taking lessons of the past, for the Tatmadaw
(armed forces) to play a role in national politics, and to modernize and
develop the nation's productive forces.

The paper also warned that it would face a lot of difficulties if
one-sided accusations and critical remarks are being directed at the
military take-over of the power (in 1988) while the political forces and
political parties fail to review what it called their weakness,
emphasizing the need also to give priority to self-criticism.

The paper cited some developments for the national reconciliation as
permitting opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi ( ASSK) by the government to
travel freely.

The US stepping up of sanctions against Myanmar came after the military
government arrested ASSK, general secretary of the National League for
Democracy (NLD), on account of the May 30 incident, in which a convoy of
ASSK was reportedly ambushed by government supporters when she was making
a political trip in the north of the country. The government claimed that
four people were killed and 48 others injured in the bloody clashes
between supporters of the NLD and pro-government protesters.

Following the incident, ASSK has been detained in a secret location.

Over the issue, the international community, including the United 
Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, the United
States and the European Union (EU), has successively urged the military
government to immediately release ASSK. Of them, the EU, along with the
United States, has also tightened sanctions against Myanmar and Japan
suspended its economic aid to the country to press for ASSK's release and
bring about dialogue between the military government and ASSK.

REGIONAL

Irrawaddy July 18 2003

Offensive Launched in Naga Hills
By Naw Seng

 July 18, 2003—A stronghold of Naga insurgents fighting India along
Burma’s northwest border is facing a major military offensive from the
Burma Army. The operation began shortly after Burmese foreign minister
Win Aung met with high-ranking Indian officials last week.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), one faction
of the Naga insurgency in northeast India, is struggling to resist the
largest offensive it has faced from the Burma Army in two years.

A spokesman for the NSCN-K told the press that thousands of Burmese
soldiers are closing in on their headquarters, which he said indicates
that a major operation to drive out rebel groups is taking place along the
Indo-Burma border.

The spokesman said that the insurgents are prepared for the Burmese
offensive and that the NSCN-K has enough forces to counter the attack.

But according to a military source within the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), the Burma Army captured the headquarters of the NSCN-K
and the group has already moved its base of operations to a new spot along
the border. The source says the current operation means Rangoon is
attempting to bolster diplomatic relations with India.

 A spokesman for the NSCN-K told the press that thousands of Burmese
soldiers are closing in on their headquarters

However, the NSCN-K spokesman told the press that the group’s leader, SS
Khaplang, and their headquarters—also known to house of several other
insurgent groups from northeast India—were safe and sound.

Last week, the Burmese foreign minister met with India Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha. They
discussed political developments in Burma since the May 30 clash and the
imprisonment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But a Burmese opposition member in India believes that other topics, such
as a new fence along the Indo-Burma border, arms supplies to Rangoon, and
Indian insurgents based on the Burmese side of the border, were touched
upon as well.

However, an Indian diplomat in Thailand who asked not to be identified
said the topics discussed at the meeting were limited to the May 30 clash
and Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment.

The Burma Army launched similar operations in the Naga Hills in 2001,
causing thousands of Naga refugees to flee across the border into India.

The NSCN split into two factions after a coup attempt in 1988. The NSCN-K
is led by Mr Khpalang and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN-I-M) is led by Mr Isak Swu and Mr Muivah.
__________

Irrawaddy July 18 2003

Exiled NLD Members to Meet Chinese
By Kyaw Zwa Moe

July 18, 2003—Exiled members of Burma’s main opposition party will meet
high-ranking officials from China’s Yunnan Province to exchange views on
the political deadlock between the Burmese military and democratic
leaders, say sources in exile. It will be the first such meeting since the
violent clash in Upper Burma on May 30.
Representatives of the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area)
(NLD-LA) group on the Thai-Burma border received an unofficial invitation
from Yunnan Province officials to discuss the current political situation
in Burma, NLD-LA Foreign Affairs Committee member Nyo Ohn Myint told The
Irrawaddy. He and another senior NLD-LA leader will meet with the
provincial authorities soon, he said.

"We will demand that Chinese officials press Burma’s military leaders to
release Aung San Suu Kyi and get the national reconciliation process back
on track," said Nyo Ohn Myint. "Information sharing is one of our
delegation’s intentions."

 We will demand that Chinese officials press Burma’s military leaders to
release Aung San Suu Kyi — Nyo Ohn Myint


China is the one of only a handful of countries which has failed to
condemn the junta’s recent crackdown on the NLD and its supporters. A bill
debated in the US Congress this week singled-out China for its close
relationship with the military regime. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State for East Asia and the Pacific Randy Schriver spoke out against
Beijing’s continued engagement with Rangoon as well. "[It] leaves China
isolated. China alone has sustained its policies in light of what recently
occurred there, the tragic attack," he said.

"We will ask Chinese officials what their central government thinks about
the junta’s brutal crackdown on the democratic forces," said Nyo Ohn
Myint. "I think that China is confused by the junta’s claims that the NLD
is just trying to attain power." The NLD-LA delegation will communicate to
the Chinese that the party wants to establish democracy to aid the people
of Burma, he added.

Analysts inside and outside Burma believe that China carries great
influence with the military leaders. China is one of the few nations which
has close business and political relationships with the Burmese
government.

Nyo Ohn Myint said he believes that the stance of the Chinese government
is very important to the military regime. He speculated that the right
words from China would have a greater impact on the regime than any
pressure exerted by Western countries. "I am convinced that China can
persuade the junta to make political reform in the country," he said
_________

Jiji Press Ticker July 18 2003

Japan Asks ASEAN to Send Mission to Free Suu Kyi

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Thursday asked the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations to send a mission to Myanmar to
urge its military junta to release prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Kawaguchi made the request in telephone talks with her Indonesian
counterpart Noer Hasan Wirajuda, according to sources with access to the
phone talks.

Indonesia is the current chair of 10-member ASEAN. Myanmar is a member of
the group.

Hasan responded by saying that ASEAN will make efforts to persuade the
Myanmarese junta to free Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi, Nobel peace prize laureate and leader of the opposition National
League for Democracy, has been detained since May 31.
_________

Nation July 18 2003

Rangoon weighs Thai 'road map'

Surakiart says goal of plan is democracy in troubled neighbour
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee

Burma is looking over a Thai-proposed "road map" towards national
reconciliation and democratisation, but has yet to comment on it.

Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai yesterday declined to discuss any
details of the plan, but said it had been given to Burmese Deputy Foreign
Minister Khin Maung Win during his visit to Thailand earlier this month.
Khin Maung Win came to Bangkok to brief the government on political
developments in Burma after the ruling junta came under pressure from the
international community for its arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The road map includes no ultimatums, nor does it seek to pressure Rangoon.
It was conceived as a way to help achieve positive political developments
in Burma and reduce international pressure on the Burmese military
government, Surakiart said.

"It's up to the Burmese government to decide, we just proposed an idea
that gives Rangoon a possible and clear path to achieve a positive end,"
he said.

Thailand will not pressure the junta to accept the road map because
Bangkok knows little about the situation inside the country, including the
condition of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the minister said.

"We will work together as neighbours who can talk to each other on all
matters. We need not shout into the faces of our friends," he said, adding
that the Thai plan would be the most practical way to achieve the ultimate
goal of democracy in Burma.

Sanctions imposed by the US, Europe and Japan will make the lives of poor
Burmese people more difficult rather than affect the regime, he added.

Thailand's road map will complement ideas raised by other countries,
including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which
agreed earlier to send a mission to Rangoon to encourage democratisation
and reconciliation.

Meanwhile, Senator Kraisak Chonhavan said Thailand should include
conditions in its policy towards Burma that encourage the junta to respect
human rights and make its political structure more democratic.

"Thai economic assistance to Burma should not be unconditional, it should
depend on respect for human rights and democracy," he said.

Kraisak, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs,
said Thailand was not in a position to impose economic sanctions on Burma
because it could cause trouble.

INTERNATIONAL

Agence France Presse July 18 2003

Blair arrives in Japan amid furore over arms expert's death

British Prime Minister Tony Blair landed in Japan late Friday for talks
with his Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizumi which will likely be
overshadowed by the death of a British expert on Iraqi arms.

The British Airways Boeing 777 carrying the prime minister and his wife,
Cherie, landed at Tokyo's Haneda airport on a flight from Washington
shortly after 10:35 pm (1335 GMT), according to an AFP photographer at the
airport.

During the flight Blair was informed of the discovery of the body of a
British expert on Iraqi arms who was embroiled in the controversy over the
intelligence Britain cited to justify going to war, Downing Street said
earlier.

That development is expected to overshadow Blair's meeting with Koizumi on
Saturday, which is expected to focus on the North Korean nuclear crisis
and Myanmar.

A body had been found west of London that appears to be that of missing
Iraqi arms expert, David Kelly, who was at the centre of a row between the
BBC, the government and critics of the war in Iraq, British police said
earlier.

"The body matches the description of Dr Kelly. The clothes do match the
description of Dr Kelly's clothes but we have not yet formally identified
the body," a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Blair's official spokesman said Britain's ministry of defence intended to
hold an independent judicial inquiry if the body proves to be Kelly's.

"If it is Dr Kelly, it will be the ministry of defence's intention to hold
an independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances of his death. It
goes without saying that the government will cooperate fully," the
spokesman told reporters aboard a plane minutes before Blair touched down
in Tokyo.

Sky News's respected political editor Adam Boulton, who was on the plane
with Blair between Washington and Tokyo, said that if the body was
Kelly's, it could lead to "a full-scale government crisis".

Kelly, 59, was named as the possible source behind a BBC report in May
which alleged the British government had "sexed up" its dossier on
Baghdad's arms capabilities ahead of the war on Iraq.

Kelly insisted he was not the source of the story.

He went missing on Thursday, two days after facing an intense and often
hostile grilling from a parliamentary inquiry into the affair.

Hours before the Blairs arrived in Japan, a small group of 10 protesters
staged a peaceful demonstration outside the British Embassy here
denouncing the prime minister's role in the Iraq war.

It is Blair's third visit to Japan, following one in January 1998 and
another in July 2000 for the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.

The prime minister's first stopover of his tour was in Washington on
Thursday, where he addressed a joint session of the US Congress.

During the visit he also closed ranks with US President George. W Bush in
defending their campaign to oust Iraq's President Saddam Hussein and the
controversial charges about his weapons of mass destruction capability
they used to justify it.

Blair will fly on to Seoul on Sunday on a brief Asian tour which will also
take him to China and Hong Kong.
_________

The Weekly Standard July 18 2003
by Matthew Continetti

The Burma Three
Congress overwhelmingly passed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act to
support jailed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. Except for three congressmen
who voted against it.

NO ONE KNOWS for sure where Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
the leader of Burma's democracy movement, is being held captive by the
military junta that has ruled her country since 1988. Sources say Suu Kyi,
who pro-government forces captured in a bloody attack on May 30, is a
prisoner at Insein, Burma's most infamous jail. But wherever she is, Suu
Kyi should know she has friends in the U.S. Congress.
In a pair of overwhelming votes, both the House and Senate passed the
Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 last week. The vote was 94-1 in
the Senate and 418-2 in the House. The president is expected to sign the
bill, which would ban Burmese exports, freeze the junta's assets in the
United States, and block visas for Burmese leaders.
It's noteworthy that the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act was shepherded
through Congress by Republicans. Senators Mitch McConnell and John McCain
and Representative Jim Leach all played an important role. (Representative
Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California, also played a key role.) But it's
also noteworthy that the bill's only opposition came from Republicans.
Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi voted against the bill, as did Representatives
Jeff Flake of Arizona and Ron Paul of Texas.
All three of the legislators say they voted against the bill because they
don't believe sanctions work. "Congressman Flake believes that
indiscriminate trade sanctions are only effective when you're dealing with
a country that cares about its people, and that's clearly not the case
with Burma," says Flake's spokesperson.
"If one country implements sanctions, the ruling government is just going
to get what they want from others," adds a spokesman for Senator Enzi.
"And sanctions could also end up hurting the people more than they hurt
the party."
Representative Paul takes a more nationalist approach. "In our view, it's
simply a tax on Americans," says Paul's press secretary. "When we impose
trade sanctions on another country, we either do not accept their goods,
or they cost more. A low income person goes to Wal-Mart and his sneakers
are more expensive."
Sanctions might not make strict economic sense, but they often do make
political sense. U.N. sanctions frustrated Saddam Hussein's regime for 12
years. And sanctions against the non-democratic South African government
in the 1980s arguably helped end apartheid. As White House press secretary
Scott McClellan said in a statement after the bill was passed, the
legislation "sends a clear message to the Burmese regime that their
continued detention of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and their
assaults on freedom cannot stand."
The three congressmen who voted against the Burma Freedom and Democracy
Act haven't suggested any alternative means of sending "a clear message"
to the Burmese government. But at least they are consistent. All three
have voted to remove the trade blockade against Cuba, too.

MISCELLANEOUS

Narinjara News July 18 2003

ALD (Exile) General Secretary Passed away

Dhaka, 18th July 2003: A prominent leader of the Arakan League for
Democracy  (ALD) (exile), Khaing Myo Khaing, passed away at a hospital in
Chiang Mai, a northern city of Thailand, at 4:10am on 18 July 2003. He was
55 years old.

He was entrusted with the post of the general secretary of the political
party in exile, which won 11 out of the 26 parliamentary seats in the
Rakhine State in the western part of Burma.  Shortly after the general
elections of 1990 whose results the ruling Burmese junta never honoured,
the ALD was banned inside the country.

He was admitted to a hospital in Chiang Mai and given medical treatment
for several days to treat the complicacies resulting from his
long-suffering.

He was elected as the general secretary of ALD (exile) at the third
conference of ALD (exile), while he was in India, in 2001.

An amiable man, Khaing Myo Khaing was highly respected by the Arakanese
community (exile) and all political parties here, an ALD spokesman said in
Dhaka.
_________

Independent July 18 2003

TOURISTS, TEMPLES AND TORTURE;
 TO REPORT THE REALITY OF DAILY LIFE UNDER MILITARY RULE IN BURMA PUTS
By PHIL REEVES

Tourists flock to landmarks such as Rangoon's Shwedagon pagoda (above),
but few get a true picture of the real Burma; Aung San Suu Kyi (below
left)

We understood one another. There were no personal questions. He showed no
curiosity about why someone purporting to be a golfer was showing a keen
interest in the abuses committed by the military junta running his nation.
I did not ask why he was risking imprisonment and torture by talking to
me, a foreigner and what Burma's generals would view as a "colonialist
stooge", about such issues as the imprisonment of "The Lady", Aung San Suu
Kyi.

To converse, he had found a quiet place away from Rangoon's main streets,
which bustle with soldiers in olive-green fatigues and - his chief concern
- ordinary-looking, sharp-eyed men loafing around in longyis and flip-
flops. He explained that the country was awash with spies from military
intelligence. "They're everywhere: at the bus stops, in the cafes, on
street corners. Nowhere is safe." Several months of his life had been
spent inside a Burmese prison for his activities as a young man with the
National League for Democracy, the Lady's party; he had no desire to serve
any more. He came straight to the point. "The trouble is, we cannot do
anything internally. The generals have the opposition nailed down. Our
leaders are in hiding, or in prison. All the students have been made to
sign documents acknowledging that if they take part in illegal opposition
activity, their parents will be held responsible and punished." He paused.
"We need more external pressure. There should be no foreign investment
here; the government will only spend the money on arms. And we need more
international pressure on our neighbours China and Thailand, which are
doing a lot of business here."

Where is the Lady now, I asked? We had heard she was being held in a hut
in the grim Insein prison, but was later moved. He shook his head. "We
just don't know."

Then he left. Note-taking in public was impossible, so that was the gist
of his words. The military government does not welcome foreign
correspondents to Burma - or Myanmar, as it styles the country. I had
acquired a tourist visa through a travel agent in Bangkok by expressing a
desire to play at a Burmese golf course and to indulge in some light
tourism.

This was not entirely untrue. Golf isn't really my game, but I was eager
to see Rangoon's breathtaking golden Shwedagon pagoda, the country's
holiest Buddhist shrine; to explore the city's silent lakes; to see its
bare-footed, pink-swaddled nuns and shaven-headed monks padding the
pavements with their alms bowls; to drink in its sheer beauty, the
product, in part, of repression and economic retardation. Neither my cover
story nor my carefully selected bright red logo-ed golfer's shirt had
deceived my friend. He never said so, yet there is not much doubt that he
guessed I was a journalist. He wanted to get a message across. We
understood one another.

People in Rangoon want to talk about the Lady and her pro-democracy
movement, but their fear and their desire to express themselves are in
unending conflict. Half-remarks are made sotto voce; unfinished sentences
trail into an embarrassed laugh; eyes slide off into the middle distance.
They particularly want to know what happened on 30 May, when Aung San Suu
Kyi's convoy was ambushed north-west of Mandalay. The regime has held her
in detention ever since, calling it "protective custody".

Two of her supporters turned up in Bangkok this month, saying they had
witnessed the attack. After dodging arrest for illegal entry, they
appeared before a Thai Senate panel and described an assault by
government-backed thugs armed with spears, iron rods, bats and sticks, who
pounded the heads of their victims on the stone road. Supporters of the
Lady say as many as 70 people were killed. This figure is far from
certain, but there is no doubt that the toll was considerably higher than
the figure of four put out by the generals. There have been finger-wagging
protests from the international community, but limited measures. The
generals, accustomed to pariah status, have responded by pouring scorn on
her and her foreign sympathisers.

The junta's version of the convoy "incident" was conveniently on display
in my lodgings at the Kandawgyi Hotel, a cluster of luxurious teak
buildings overlooking Rangoon's Royal Lake, designed to persuade tourists
that Burma is an idyllic, smoothly run, civilised society. Each morning
the English-language edition of The New Light of Myanmar newspaper was
placed in the lobby in the hope that the handful of guests might swallow
its contents along with their muesli and orange juice. There can be few
more Orwellian entities than this organ and the figures in dark glasses
and fatigues who strut through its pages.

The paper is a distorting porthole on an isolated society, a potentially
rich land sandwiched between India, Thailand and China that has drifted
into a tragedy of its own making. An edition last week was led by an
account of "Secretary-1" opening a new university, omitting to mention
that it is part of an exercise in social engineering in which students are
being relocated from the city to the countryside, where they can cause
less trouble. Was it, one wonders, built by forced labour? Burmese,
including children, are still commandeered into building roads and public
projects in rural areas.

Secretary-2 had met with "responsible personnel" from social organisations
in a village to give them the "necessary instructions", said another
article. The State Peace and Development Council - newspeak for the
military government - has been busy pursuing Myanmar's four social
objectives. These include the "uplift of the morale and morality of the
entire nation" and increasing the "dynamism of patriotic spirit" - areas
doubtless in need of a boost, given Burma's broken-down economy,
corruption, repression and huge opium trade. One suspects that even the
Belarussian ex-Soviets living under Alexander Lukashenko, the totalitarian
former collective- farm director, would giggle at this nonsense.

There is nothing laughable about the newspaper's attacks on Aung San Suu
Kyi. It has been running a series of articles supposedly from a
disillusioned party member who depicts her as an ambitious and impetuous
fanatic and blames the 30 May violence on NLD youths armed with sticks and
catapults, intent on political chaos.

The 7 July edition ran a picture of Suu Kyi meeting the junta's top man,
General Than Shwe. The photograph was taken several years ago, when she
was free and the two sides were trying to negotiate, but the caption
merely said that she had "gotten a chance to have frank and open
discussions" - as if these had just happened - but "could not make a
peaceful transition to the nation's future". No mention, of course, of the
fact that her NLD won the 1990 election, but was barred from taking power.

I meet another man, another admirer of the Lady. Again, this is the gist.
He favours tougher international sanctions against the government,
acknowledging that in the short term this will make life harder for
Burma's 48 million people. I ask whether the military government will ever
voluntarily cede power to Suu Kyi. He seems doubtful. He says the military
men are afraid. He says they worry that one day they might have to answer
for the 3,000 students their troops killed suppressing pro-democracy
demonstrations in 1988. "I think she will be detained for a long time - at
least a year." I'm told that some Burmese dream of an American invasion,
like Iraq.

Some journalists who have slipped into Burma in recent years have chosen
to smuggle out their notes and photographs. I decided on a different
system - fake postcards to my wife, which might escape notice if my
luggage was searched. These would act as a form of record, even though
cast only in general terms.

"Dear Mandy," began my first, "Having a wonderful time. Wish you were
here. Last night the phone in my hotel room suddenly rang at about 7pm. A
man's voice informed me that my package tour included dinner with a
Cultural Show. The show starts now,' it added. Something about his
reproachful tone made clear that truancy was out of the question.

It was held in a cavernous hall, with long tables set for 150 diners. The
place was almost empty. There was only one other guest, a chatty
French-Canadian woman who the following day was to begin a three-month
meditation course under the instruction of Buddhist monks. For the next
dozen weeks she will live in silence. Her final night of conversation was
spent watching a troupe of lavishly costumed dancers performing to the
whistle and clatter of a seven-man Burmese band. The star was a po- faced
girl in pink football shorts who had mastered the art of balancing on one
foot on top of a milk bottle placed on a bar stool, while juggling a small
wicker ball with the other foot... I thought of the Intourist hotel,
Moscow. circa 1980.

Afterwards I went downstairs to the nightclub, optimistically called Hot
Shots. The latter species was nowhere to be seen. It, too, was more or
less empty but for half a dozen hookers who looked about 16 (again, more
echoes of the Soviets). They flocked around. I hoped they might talk -
shedding a little light on their dark corner of this isolated world - but
their minds were trained exclusively on the foreign currency in my pocket.
Lots of love, etc."

"The Burmese are too docile. They'll accept anything." I can tell you no
more than that the speaker is a businessman from a neighbouring Asian
country, trying to make money in Burma. He reels off Burma's riches -
rice, gas, teak, huge tourism potential, talented people - as evidence of
the scandal of its mismanagement. "The place is a nightmare to work in.
There is no transparency, so it is very hard to draw up business budgets.
The military has a hand in everything. And military intelligence is very,
very good. You can do what you like - sleep with women and so on - and
they will leave you alone, until you conflict with their interests. Then
you're finished."

"Dear Mandy: Went to the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in the
centre of Rangoon. If ever there was a little corner of England, this is
it. Neo-Gothic, red brick, dark wooden pews, whitewashed walls. At the
last service, they sang Hymn No 470, HF Lyte's Praise My Soul, the King of
Heaven', just as they must have done decades ago, British bureaucrats and
mustachioed soldiers blaring away lustily in the name of the Empire. There
is a small chapel dedicated to the Brits and other imperial forces who
died fighting the Japanese in the Burma Campaign of 1942-45 (during which
the Japanese turned the altar into a brewery). Wooden shields of the
regiments who lost men - the Blackwatch, East Lancashires, Royal Scots,
King's Own, Notts and Derby, Royal Engineers and more - hang on the
walls."

The caretaker proudly showed me a framed article praising the freedom of
worship in Burma under the junta's rule. I thought I would explore this by
dropping into another Christian church near by - can't say which. A portly
cleric appeared and agreed to show me round. "Does freedom of worship mean
that you can preach what you like from the pulpit?" I asked. He threw me a
glance full of suspicion. "There's no politics. Any mention of politics
and you will be arrested at once." Why, I asked, knowing the answer. The
suspicion turned to obvious fear. "Ha, ha, ha" he laughed, looking bleakly
out of the window. Why is everyone afraid of foreigners, I asked? "HA, HA,
HA." I left, leaving him miserable and cross.

The Rangoon street stalls sell the paraphernalia of fantasy, of dreams of
better things. You can buy a licence application form for a GSM mobile
phone, alongside entry forms for a US green-card lottery, pictures of
David Beckham and Manchester United, and powdered monkey's skull for
medical purposes. The problem is, one man pointed out in the customary
half-whisper, that the government charges vast fees for issuing the
licence, and restricts phone access to its friends and supporters. He was
in his twenties, a BBC World Service fan who wants nothing more than to
get out of the country and explore the world. That's the other problem:
there is no freedom of travel here. We talk about getting a visa. He
shakes his head despairingly.

"Dear Mandy: Today I went for a ride on a suburban train - Rangoon's
equivalent of the Circle Line, but above ground. Before I was allowed to
board, I was stopped on the platform by some officials and sent to an
office for a Sars test. The carriage was dusty, entirely unornamented,
wooden, with glassless windows and no doors. Two policemen lounged at one
end, separated from the masses by a piece of grubby blue string stretched
across the carriage's width. On seeing me, one of them, a sullen young man
in a vest, insisted on writing down my name and details in a crumpled
notebook with an air of enormous self-importance."

After three days, my tour package expires. I have played no golf. As we
drive through Rangoon to the airport - past the pavilions, the shabby
stores, the half-built luxury apartment blocks, rumoured to be built on
the proceeds of drug money - I see a big red iron sign. People must
"oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding
negative views", it declares. There is not much to gladden the heart here,
but it is a gratifying source of hope that, for all the fear and
repression, these instructions are so widely ignored.